Unrequited
by FANtom of the Opera
Summary: He loved her. And lost her. From their first meeting to days at Hogwarts, this is the untold story of Severus Snape and Lily Potter.
1. Chapter 1

**(A/N): I've been scrambling for an idea for HP fanfiction and this is the untold story of Snape and Lily's relationship. This is only the first chapter—I'm not too sure how far it will go, but it's a start.**

** Hopefully this is remotely good :/**

The first time he saw her, he knew.

As he stumbled away from Spinner's End, scrambling for a way to pass the hours, he ducked behind swathes of green as two girls came bounding down the path, one after the other.

The first was plucky, thin like a stick and with a downturned mouth. Her eyes were sharp and birdlike, and they pecked at everything in sight. Her brown hair was neatly curled and it bounced as she ran, but its neatness seemed almost artificial. She came to a stop at the foot of the path, crossing her arms and pouted at the girl behind her.

He almost fell backwards at the sight of the second girl, who took careful, measured steps, almost as if she was afraid of tripping over her own feet. Her hair was long, thick, and the color of baked clay, and she was graceful in the way she walked—graceful in a way that no human could ever mimic.

Of course, she _was _human—but with a gift.

He saw it at once as she swept her gaze around the path and speckles of dew appeared on the nearest blades of grass. He saw it as the path underneath her seemed to take on an unnatural greenish hue. He saw it as she reached the other girl, who was clearly her sister, and a small sapling began leeching its way out of the sidewalk crack to wrap around her leg.

A witch.

He inched closer to hear their conversation. He knew he was eavesdropping, but this one moment seemed far more interesting than the hours at Spinner's with those who could never understand him, than covering his ears and fighting the echoes of his parents' furious shouts.

"…all you do, isn't it? You think it's funny?"

He crept silently through the bushes as he heard the other girl, who was clearly a Muggle, barking at her sister. "…Well, it isn't. You're a _freak, _and you can't do anything right, and it's no wonder that no one wants you…"

"Mum and Dad want me," the red-haired girl whispered, playing with the hem of her skirt.

"…sure, for now…only a matter of time…"

"Stop," she said softly, her voice shaking. "Can't…help it…"

"Leaving… by yourself," the girl said defiantly before turning to go, her eyes burning with scorn.

She turned and raced back up the bath, her dress bunching up at her knees.

Left all alone, the second girl sat on the path, her fingers reaching for the sapling in the sidewalk crack. It curled around her finger as tiny leaves sprouted from its spindly stem. A lone tear escaped from her sea-glass colored eyes and fell onto the path, leaving a dark imprint on the sidewalk cement.

He couldn't take it anymore. Slowly, he rose and walked over to her. He sat down beside her and tapped her on the shoulder.

She gasped and started to move away. "Who are you?"

He shrugged. "A friend."

He tapped three fingers on a section of the sidewalk, which began to shift and cave in like clay. A hole appeared in the center of the cement, and a thick stalk grew out of it. A white flower bloomed in a matter of seconds, unfurling its petals. He gently plucked it out of the ground and unsuccessfully attempted to wedge it into the girl's hair.

She looked at him gravely, her eyes serious. "So you can do it too?"

A ghost of a smile flickered on his face. "Yeah. I can. I'm pretty sure there are loads of us who can do it. Not just kids, but adults, too. My mum can."

She smiled. "Okay." Her eyes wandered to his disheveled clothes and ash-tinged hair. "What's your name?"

"Severus. Yours?"

"Lily." As she said it, he couldn't help but notice the way her face seemed to glow when she smiled and the gentle curve of her hair as it trickled down and over her shoulders. Spinner's End was full of smoke and dirt, a town of no one and nothing but rubble, and this was the first time he'd seen someone he could call… _pretty._

He pointed at the retreating path. "Your sister?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah. Petunia. She… she can't do it. My parents can't, either. I don't think she likes me."

He shrugged. "Maybe she just doesn't understand you."

"I guess. I just…" She clasped her hands together, as if she were afraid of them. "I'm scared sometimes, of the things that happen when I'm around. I don't know how to control it."

On an impulse, before he could stop himself, he grabbed her hand, feeling it like a lit match burning under his. "You know what my mum said?" She watched him intently, her eyes wide. "She said that we'll learn how to use our magic. There's a school—a school that will teach us. So you'll be fine, Lily." He liked the way her name sounded on his tongue, and the way he could say it, like she was his friend.

"Okay." She looked back up at the path where her sister had ran back moments ago. "I have to go. But… will you come here again?"

"If you will. I can tell you more about magic—about, you know, all of the stuff we can do."

"I'd like that." She turned and hurried away, her hair flying like a cape behind her. "Bye, Severus!"

He watched her disappear into the distance, still smiling. "Bye, Lily!"

...

His house, tucked into a barely-there corner, slowly came into view. He walked down the same ruddy old path past the faded brick houses, the windows dark and sunken as if they were collapsing in on themselves. They probably were; it was impossible to tell which houses were inhabited and which ones weren't these days.

Severus detested Spinner's End. _It _was one of the reasons he had been so excited when his mother had told him of the school—the one she called _Hogwarts. _"All wizards go there," she'd whispered when they'd crouched in the attic, hiding from one of his father's drunken rages. "You'll get a letter when you come of age, Severus, and then you'll never have to hide here again. You'll be free."

"What about you?" He'd asked her then, his fingers trembling at the sound of glass breaking on the floor below. "Will you be free?"

"I'll manage," she'd replied, weaving her fingers into his delicately.

But from then on, this school had been all he'd thought about.

Until Lily now, of course. Severus couldn't wait to tell his mother that he'd found another wizard—a _witch, _he supposed—nearby that he could talk to. A friend, no less.

He bounded up the three cement steps on his porch, dodging the thick vines that strangled the stairs and sharp thorns jutting out from them. His father didn't much care about maintaining the house. He spent most of the money on alcohol.

Severus gave the door three sharp knocks—that was his signal to his mother that he was home. His fingers trailed down the glass windows on either side of the door, hazed over with smoke and mist. He quickly straightened his posture at the sound of footsteps. He already knew what he would say to his mother. _Mum! You'll never believe it, I went out today and I met this girl…_

But the hand that yanked the door open wasn't his mother's. It was grimy and covered in soot, dirt caked underneath the fingernails. It was the hand of someone who didn't care much about maintaining the house—who spent most of the money on alcohol.

His father.

"Get inside," he said coarsely, pulling Severus inside the house. The boy looked around for any sight of his mother, but saw none.

"Where's Mum?" Severus asked bravely, trying to keep his palms from sweating.

"None of your concern," growled Tobias Snape. "Where've you been? You're a lad now. Should be finding a job—supporting the family, not lazing around. I'm tired of doing everything I can to—"

"Leave him alone, Tobias." Severus' heart lifted at the sight of his mother storming in from the living room, her hands on her hips. "He's done nothing wrong."

"And who are you to decide that?" Severus inched towards a corner of the room as his father's voice only grew louder.

"I'm his mother. And if you were better to him, maybe he'd grow to call you his father."

"That's enough, Eileen!" Severus' father roared. He reached for the vase on the mantle.

By this time, Severus had acknowledged that the fight was no longer about him. He ran out of the room and into his, tears burning behind his eyes. He was terrified of his father—this much he knew. But his mother was different. More often than not, she stood up for him. Someday, in the future, he vowed to take his mother's name. _Eileen Prince. _There would come a time when he would be known for her and not for _him._

But her time with Tobias Snape had changed her. Severus saw it when he looked into her eyes. Once, he had seen a lifetime waiting there, glowing dimly but with all the light in the world. Now, they held not light but a graying darkness, as if the fire within her had been wiped away with an eraser, like it was never there. His mother rarely sat with him like she had in the past, or sang softly to him as sleep beckoned. She usually sat in the foyer when Tobias wasn't home, hugging her knees to her chest and watching shadows dance on the walls. She rarely spoke to her son, if at all.

That night, Severus knew that there was nothing his parents could do for him. He was on his own, as he had been for the last two years. Taking shaky breaths, he lifted his covers up and over him.

Only when he was completely and absolutely sure that he would be unheard did he cry himself to sleep.

** Thank you for reading! Constructive criticism is appreciated. **

** Have a fabulous day. xD**


	2. Chapter 2

**Second chapter! :) **

** Thanks to generous assistance from A.O. (Guest), I can confirm that Dumbledore was headmaster when Snape and Lily went to Hogwarts :)**

**Enjoy!**

He was already waiting there when she skipped down the path, a smile rising on her face. "Hello again," she said, pulling him over to the grass beside the path. They'd been meeting like this for a few months now, on and off, and she awaited it more each day. She loved the stories that Severus told her about a world within her own—a world with magic and wizardry and everything she'd ever dreamed of.

No matter what anyone else said, she liked Severus. She had other mates, too—there were lots of girls in Cokeworth that she played with on occasion—but talking to Severus was different. It was like looking into the eyes of a child and seeing an adult there. When they were together, friend to friend, she felt powerful. Confident. She almost forgot the merciless taunts of her sister—and that she'd had to move into the guest bedroom because Petunia simply refused to sleep in the same room as "that magical freak".

She grinned and waited for his storytelling to begin. "So, what are you going to tell me about today? The warlock's hairy heart? I liked that story." She lay back on the grass so that her hair splayed out around her like an aura. "Or that street with shops on it—Dragon Alley?"

"_Diagon,_" he corrected her, though he was still smiling.

"Right. Or—Oh, I've got it! Tell me about what it's like at this school. Once I say goodbye to Mum and Dad and Petunia—Oh, I hope she'll come and see me off, I hope she'll do that much—and reach this big castle, what then?"

"The Sorting," Severus whispered, his voice barely audible over the rush of the wind.

"What's the sorting?" Lily drew closer, eagerness written all over her face.

"All the students—the first-years, the newest batch—go into the Great Hall. My mum says it's _huge_, and stars glow in the sky even though there's a ceiling."

"Magic," Lily whispered.

"Yeah. But at Hogwarts, there are these four houses. They're like these groups—and all the students get sorted into them."

"How?"

"The Sorting Hat."

"A _hat_?" Lily giggled. "Is the hat magic, too?"

"Yeah." Severus smiled wanly. "The hat looks into your mind—sees what your personality's like. Then, it puts you in a house. You stay with your house all seven years at Hogwarts, and you help them earn points for a big trophy at the end of each year."

"Do the houses have names?" Lily couldn't believe how much of the world there was left to see. A few months earlier, she'd thought herself the only one with the power to do… _things. _Now, she knew and accepted that she was one of many—and she couldn't wait to meet other wizards.

"Yeah, they do." He took a deep breath. "They're called Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin."

Lily's hands were shaking with excitement. "So tell me about the houses. Start with that funny-sounding one…the one with the puffs?"

"Hufflepuff. Their symbol is the badger. Well, my mum says that all the people in Hufflepuff are really loyal, hardworking…" He laughed. "Honestly, I'm not so sure I'd like to be one. Then there's Ravenclaw—the eagles. They're the wise ones—if you're smart, witty, and intelligent, chances are you'll end up there."

"Okay…" Lily thought hard about where she thought she fit. "What about the other two?"

"Gryffindor. They're known for bravery. The Gryffindor symbol is the lion, and all the students with dominating courage are sorted there."

"Oh, wow." Lily's eyes bulged. "That sounds _brilliant. _I'd love to make it into Gryffindor. Wouldn't you, Severus?"

He sighed. "I suppose."

"Let's cross our fingers. What's the last one, then? Slitheen?"

"Slytherin. They… they're all about cunning. Cunning, ambition, and victory… their symbol is the snake. Some of the Slytherins got into Dark Magic, too, while they were at Hogwarts."

Lily bit her lip. "They don't sound very nice." She waved her arms and legs up and down on the grass as if etching a snow angel into the dirt. "I hope we both get Gryffindor. Don't you?"

Severus nodded, though for some reason his heart wasn't truly in it.

"What house was your mum in?"

"Slytherin. But she didn't go into Dark Magic," he replied defensively. "She's great, she is. I promise. She's not evil, or a dark witch, or—"

"Severus," Lily said softly. "I believe you."

_I believe you. _For some reason, those were the words that he needed to hear. After spending days, weeks, _years _in his house, being told he was nothing or being ignored completely, after being questioned and doubted and hit and kicked out and forgotten, he knew that there was someone in the world that trusted him. For what it was worth, it was something.

…

Lily said her goodbyes to Severus and walked back up the path, humming a song to herself. Her mind still swarmed with the words that her friend had said to her—_Sorting. Hufflepuff, Great Hall, Hogwarts, Gryffindor. _She smiled at the thought of being put into Gryffindor, of being admired for her bravery. She'd never thought of herself as brave—she'd never actually had the chance to prove that she had courage, if she did have any at all. But if she could, she knew she would.

Only time would tell. But for now, she was content with crossing her fingers.

She let herself in through the front door, which was unlocked, and looked around the house for her parents. "Mum! I'm hungry! Where are you?"

Lily gasped at the sight at not her mum, but Petunia racing down the stairs. She fixed Lily with a withering glare. "I've seen what you do outside," she accused. "Messing around with that boy. Who is he, anyway? Looks like you plucked him straight from the dump."

"Stop it, Petunia," Lily said fiercely. Wizard or not, she was prepared to defend her friend. "You don't know him. You haven't even _talked _to him."

"Well, I've seen everything I wanted to see. He's like you, isn't he? A weirdo? He looks like it. And I didn't think you could stoop any lower."

"Leave him alone. I'll choose my own friends, and you choose yours."

"I'm telling Mum," Petunia scoffed, crossing her arms. "I'm telling Mum that you're making friends with the garbage and then…maybe she won't let you go to that school either and you'll be stuck here…"

Petunia ran back up the stairs, her footsteps echoing on the floor below. Lily sighed, trying to ignore the lump in her chest that had throbbed ever since Petunia had found out about Lily's magic and…

_Wait._

Lily had never said anything to Petunia about Hogwarts, or that there was a magical school at all…

Before she could register her actions, she was running, running to the kitchen table and nearly screaming at the top of her lungs when she saw the crisp pieces of parchment waiting there. The envelope was already open, though Lily didn't know if the job had been her parents' or Petunia's, but its intent was clear.

MS L. EVANS

THE GUEST BEDROOM

COKEWORTH, ENGLAND

Her heart skipped a beat as she opened the letter and read what awaited her there.

_Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry_

_ Dear Miss Evans,_

_ We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry…_

All the stories that Snape had told her were _true. _(Not that she'd ever doubted him, of course, but a confirmation was nice.) Soon, she'd be going to Hogwarts with all sorts of magical people and learn how to cast spells, make potions... She wondered what the Wizarding World was like—how much was truth and how much legend?

It was only a matter of time before she found out. _Gryffindor or Slytherin? Cover Petunia in boils or warts? _She almost laughed at the thought before stopping herself. It wasn't Petunia's fault she wasn't a witch. But was it her, Lily's, fault that she was?

…

He smiled at the feel of the paper in his hands. He'd yanked the letter off the table the moment he'd spied it—his parents were fighting downstairs and his mother hadn't even given it a second glance. Severus grinned at the mention of the headmaster—_Albus Dumbledore—_and of the beginning of the term. Soon, he'd be free from Spinner's End, from his parents, and from this dreary life.

Lily must've gotten her letter too—he was sure of it. He wondered how she was feeling now, swept with elation and anticipation. He thought about showing his mother the letter, maybe even asking her if they could plan a trip to the Diagon Alley she'd told him so much about, but he thought better of it. He'd tell her later, when they could be alone and talk everything out. He hadn't told either of his parents about Lily, partly because they hadn't had time for him these past months and partly because he didn't want to let anyone else in on her. Lily was his secret, his treasure that he wanted to keep under lock and key. Their friendship was something precious he didn't want to ruin.

He hoped that, even at Hogwarts, they'd stay friends. Some small part of him did hope he'd be sorted into Gryffindor, so that he could be with Lily (because he was convinced that she'd find herself there, of course), but he knew somehow that his path would stray from hers.

Severus could only cross his fingers, like Lily had, but for a different reason.

In hopes that their friendship would endure.

…


	3. Chapter 3

**Just a note before I continue the story:**

** Because this is a retelling based on fact, I'm trying to keep as many of the details surrounding Lily and James as accurate as possible (Snape's family situation, Spinner's End, etc.) but there are definitely some things that aren't going to be 100% accurate (for example, the fact that James and Snape first meet on the Hogwarts train). **

** Please bear with me – I'm just trying to make this story as entertaining (and heartbreaking? Is that a good word? Probably not) as possible.**

** Thank you and keep reading :) **

Severus' hand yanked at his mother's pale one as they walked through the neatly paved paths. "Come on, come on, come _on_!" His eyes swept over the towering list of books and items required for his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His mother barely smiled, her eyes sunken and hollow, as if the mere presence of sunlight was painful to her withered stature. Severus couldn't remember the last time she'd left the house; he wondered if she ever did at all anymore.

He pulled his mother into a store embellished with the words _Flourish and Blotts _and gaped at the towering shelves of books lightly dusted with smoke and the customary old-book reek. "Mum, _look at this_."

Finding all of the books on his list was no simple task, but he divided up the list with his mother and they both worked together to conquer the intimidating scrap of parchment. "Standard Book of Spells, Grade One," he read off. "Wow. There's a whole _book _of spells… Wonder all of the things I could do with _that._"

After collecting almost all of the items on the supply list, Eileen guided Severus to a modest looking shop painted with swathes of pastel colors. The store's sign read _Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour _in mint green letters. Severus and Eileen sat down and ordered two cones, loading them with scoops in various colors. Eileen paid for the sweet treats with the thick gold coins that had been used as currency throughout this entire alleyway. "Galleons," the shopkeeper at Gringotts (who had looked oddly inhuman to Severus' eye) had mentioned. He couldn't wait to tell Lily about this.

_Lily. _And there she was again—floating, soaring in his mind's eye, an ever-present part of his thoughts. _Lily would like this ice cream. I wonder if Lily's bought this book? I hope Lily's been able to come to Diagon Alley. _He'd told her to come today in hopes that they would meet each other, but so far he'd seen not even a fleeting glimpse of her blazing red hair.

"Mmph," he mumbled as the ice cream touched his teeth and worked a chilly sensation through his entire mouth. "Mum, where next?"

His mother stuck her spoon into her last scoop. "Ollivander's," she said quietly, her face sallow. "Wand shop."

_Wands. _In all the stories his mother had told him, he'd always asked after the wands. "What kind, Mum? Was it pink? Did it glow in the dark?" Now, finally, he'd be able to get his own.

Severus and his mother polished off the ice cream as it dribbled into their fingers and headed for Ollivander's. Though shops poked around every corner and jutted out from every alleyway, the wand shop was all that clouded Severus' mind. He couldn't help but imagine what _his _wand would be like. Would it be able to perform spells as well as the others? Would it double as a broomstick?

At last, the musty old wand shop came into view. Eileen led her son to the door, where a man and woman were hovering worriedly.

"—left her with the Denbys, I hope she's not putting up a fuss—"

"—never seen a place like this, it's a wonder that it even exists—"

"Come on, Mum!" Severus practically bounded into the shop and gasped at the sight of tall, daunting shelves assaulting him everywhere he looked, stacked from top to bottom with what resembled shoeboxes. From deep within the store, he heard a cacophony of voices—most of them children. Another voice pierced the humid air, though—an older one, tinged with aging, but with wisdom as well.

"Come over here, we can try this one, let me just get it out from the top…"

"I'm going to try and find the shopkeeper," Severus whispered, and dove into the thick of the store. He began to feel faint at the way the shelves seemed to close in around them, as if the wands themselves were inviting him to try them out. He followed the voices, which got louder as he passed, and noted that there seemed to be a few boys present. He turned the corner and then heard a clear, high voice—one he swore he'd never forget.

"Mr. Ollivander, what about me?"

Before he could stop himself, he was running, nearly tripping over his own feet in anticipation. It all made sense now. The people at the front of the store must have been her parents—the girl they'd mentioned Petunia. And the girl inside the store?

_BOOM._

Everything jerked to the side and Severus slammed into the creaking floorboards with a thump. Pain erupted at the top of his head, and he felt a lump the size of one of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans starting to surface. He'd ran straight into a stack of boxes—_and _found Mr. Ollivander.

Flames ate at his cheeks as he forced himself into a standing position. Tentatively, he ran a hand through his hair and it came away covered in a film of gray particles. Severus looked at the scene before him: three students and a wizened, elderly old man with graying hair and almost transparent eyes. The man took Severus in with surprise. "Another first year, I see," he said huskily. "Come along, I'll pick up the wands later."

Still shocked but too much so to do anything but oblige, Severus fell into line with the other students. He quickened his pace until he was side by side with Lily, her auburn hair in a messy braid, who was talking to a tall, cocky looking boy on her other side. His dark hair looked both neat and messy, and he grinned toothily at Lily whenever she spoke. The boy gawked when his eyes fell on Severus. "We saw your tumbling act just there," he said, pointing at the stack of dilapidated wand boxes that served as the aftermath of Severus' spectacular entrance.

Severus blushed. "Yeah, I couldn't find you all," he mumbled, hastily turning his gaze to the ground.

Lily turned to the boy with a fierce expression. "You don't have to talk to him like that, James," she fired back, a protective look in her eyes.

The boy—_James, _Lily had just said—shrugged. "Whatever." He turned his nose up as he looked at Severus' robes, which were lightly smudged with dirt. He'd chosen his finest for his first trip to Diagon Alley, but "finest" wasn't a common word in Spinner's End. It had been hard enough convincing his mother to make the trip—she was fighting with his father yet again, and wasn't too keen on spending the day with him, Severus—and he hadn't wanted to trouble her with clothing on top of everything else. "Nice robes. Don't worry, I'm sure they're the best you could find back where they dump the trash at Fortescue's—you're lucky as it is to scrounge that mangy old thing."

Lily swatted James' hand. "Leave him alone. What's he done to you?" She scoffed at him and grabbed Severus' hand. "Come on, Severus. We don't have to listen to dirty-mouthed codgers like him." Still steaming, she pulled the two of them ahead and kept walking.

Finding his wand was perhaps the most exciting experience of Severus' life. Running his finger over the delicate wood gave him a sense of overwhelming anticipation, and his fingers trembled each time Mr. Ollivander held one out to him. "Dragon heartstring, supple, slightly pliable… Unicorn tail hair, resistant, ten and a half inches…"

At last, when both he and Lily, along with James and the boy following him, had selected their wands—or rather, the wands had selected _them_—they filed out of the shop and surveyed their Hogwarts lists. Severus had only a few things left to collect before his trip to Diagon Alley was complete. "Just one more thing—a cauldron," Severus said to Lily.

"We went to Potage's Cauldron Shop just before Ollivander's and got one," Lily informed him. "I reckon you should go there, too. It's just around the corner—a right and a left."

"Okay," said Severus, already rising from his chair. "It's okay, Mum, I can do it on my own," he added hastily at the sight of his mother getting up with him. "Lily says it's close enough. I have some Gall-yons in my pocket, anyway. It should be enough. I'll be back in a bit!"

Severus eyed James warily before leaving, but he was deep in conversation with the other boy, who was sporting light brown hair that constantly fell over his face and eyes that glistened with worry, as if he were afraid of the ground itself. Severus couldn't hear his name all that properly; it sounded something along the lines of _Rufus, _but he wasn't completely sure.

Reaching in his pocket once more to make sure the Galleons were there, he took off down the alleyway in search of Potage's Cauldron Shop. "Now, what did Lily say again?" he murmured to himself. "Around the corner, then a left—or was it a right first?"

Lost in thought, he didn't even see a fifth year balancing a precarious stack of books in front of him—and regrettably, she didn't see him either. (Who could blame her—it's a wonder she saw anything at all with a stack that high in front of her.) "Oof!" All of the books clattered to the ground, and the girl shot Severus a very nasty look.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, didn't see—"

He took off in pursuit of one of the books, which had been thrown all the way into the crook of a darkened shop. Severus picked up the book—and then gasped at the sight of a long, dark alley leading to the right. Small groups of witches and wizards spoke quietly in front of shops lit by oil lanterns. Forgetting the book momentarily, Severus took a few nervous steps towards the street, passing by the street name on the brick wall. _Knockturn Alley._

Knockturn Alley snaked down through large clumps of shops. Severus' eyes swam across the names as he walked: _The Coffin House,_ where a particularly slimy looking wizard acknowledged him with a yellowing bone clamped in his right hand;_ Borgin and Burkes, _in which he could see nothing but darkness; _ Noggin and Bounce, _where a shriveled looking head winked at him and caused him to considerably quicken his pace, and—

"Hey, kid."

Severus yelped as he felt something hard hit his shoulder. He whirled around, his hand fumbling in the search for his wand. It took him a few moments to realize that, even if he _could _find his wand, he knew no spells with which to defend himself. He was going to die here, alone in this godforsaken dark street, where no one would even know, not even Lily—

"Whassa matter? I just wanna talk."

Severus took in the sight of the man, who watched him with beady eyes. His shaggy hair fell over his face, which was covered in wrinkles and dark red and black lines. In his hands was a thick black book with a picture of green smoke on the front.

"I have to go," he told the man, already backing away.

"Wait a second! I saw you at Flourish and Blotts, kid, you must be a first year… here, just take this book. You seem like the kinda kid who would do it proud. Just take it… take it and read…I take it you'll like what you see…" The man pressed the book into Severus' hands, saluted him with a dirt-covered hand, and took off down the other side of Knockturn Alley.

Severus stood there for a moment, too stunned to speak. Then, he turned the book over in his hands and ran his fingers over the title, which had been engraved into the thick cover:

_Touch of Oblivion: An Introduction to the Dark Arts _

"The Dark Arts," Severus whispered to himself. His mother had told him of spells such as the Jelly-Legs Jinx and Oppugno, but _never _of anything related to the Dark Arts. He'd once asked his mother if there were any bad spells, but she'd dodged the question.

"What is dark ought to stay in the shadows," she'd reminded him. And he'd never questioned her judgment, never asked after dark spells after that. The subject had since failed to arouse his curiosity.

Until now.

His mind whirred and clicked, trying to rationalize the situation. _It's just a book, _he assured himself. _Books help you learn things. This book could help me in school. What if the Dark Arts are important? It's my first year at Hogwarts… I don't want to fall behind… This book could help me in school…_

Pushing the subject from his mind, he stuffed _Touch of Oblivion _into the crook of his arm and ventured deeper into Knockturn Alley for Potage's Cauldron Shop.

_It's just a book. It's not like it'll change me._


End file.
